#EuroMajdan # євромайдан Chronicle 01/13/2014

UPD: 13/01/2014 Pray where you want. Yanukovych defended the Greek Catholics from the Ministry of Culture

President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych considers it necessary to improve the legislation in the religious sphere regarding the right of believers to pray in those places where they wish.

"People should have the right to pray wherever they want," the press service of the head of state Yanukovych said on Monday, Interfax-Ukraine reports. According to Yanukovych, the legislation should provide such an opportunity for everyone, regardless of their religion.

"It is necessary to soften the legislation and provide believers with an opportunity to pray wherever they wish," the head of state said. The President stressed that he treats all confessions with the same respect.

The press service of the president noted that the current legislation provides for the need for official permission for worship, if it does not occur in a place specially designated for this purpose.

As reported, the leadership of the Ministry of Culture appealed to the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), Archbishop Sviatoslav (Shevchuk) of Kyiv-Galich, to ensure compliance with the legislation on public worship and pointed out that priests should have permission to conduct services in such places , As Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kiev. The Ministry of Culture recalled that according to the requirements of the law "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations", worship services, religious ceremonies, ceremonies and processions without appropriate permits can be conducted only in religious buildings and in the adjacent territory, in places of pilgrimage, in apartments and houses of citizens and some other places (In cemeteries, in places of individual graves and crematoria). "In other cases, according to the current legislation, public worship services, religious ceremonies, ceremonies and processions are held every time with the permission of the relevant local state administration, which is currently absent," the letter says. В письме также отмечается, что несоблюдение таких предписаний может стать основанием для постановки перед судом вопроса о приостановлении деятельности соответствующих религиозных организаций. In response to this letter, Archbishop Svyatoslav (Shevchuk) said that for the first time during the Independence of Ukraine, an official threat was voiced about the termination of the activities of the UGCC religious organizations, and assured that the Church is not a party to political processes.

UPD: 13/01/2014 Ministry of Culture threatens to close UGCC "for public services"

The Ministry of Culture threatens the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church with lawsuits for the participation of its clergy in protests. Source: http://censor.net.ua/p266203.

Он рассказал, что УГКЦ получила от Минкульта письмо с предупреждением, а фактически, угрозами. "It is interesting that in this letter for the first time in all the years of independent Ukraine there was a warning, and we can even call it a threat, that the religious communities of the UGCC can be deprived of legal status in court," Svyatoslav said.

According to him, the reason for the appeal of the Ministry of Culture was the participation of priests in the protests of citizens. "The reason is the very fact that part of the clergy is among the believers who spontaneously came out to peaceful protests," Svyatoslav said. "We have always been, we are and will be with the people, this is the core of the church.We never encouraged or blessed any illegal actions.We were educating the legal culture.We always called for fulfilling the laws of Ukraine according to God's law, and therefore, the social doctrine of the church," - explained the head of the UGCC.

Он заявил, что церковь поощряет верующих быть активными участниками общественного процесса. "To be able to feel fair laws, and therefore, to be active participants in the social process.The church is not a party to political life, but it is an integral part of civil society," explained the UGCC Svyatoslav.